Thursday, August 1, 2013

Swami Rama Tirtha (1873-1906)

Swami Rama Tirtha was God-realized
saint, a personal friend of Dr. Mohammed Iqbal, and a linguist of Hindi, Urdu,
English, Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, French and German languages. He studied the
Quran thoroughly. In 1905 he had several conversations with the Muslims in
Lucknow which were later recorded in the sixth volume of his works “In woods of
God Realization.” We give below some extracts of his views on Islam :

Lakhs
of non-Muslims butchered : “The truth is that the followers of Islam have
very wrongly interpreted the words ‘Kufra’ and ‘Kafir’ and they have also made
a very wrong use of these words. As you know, the heart of a man is the sea of
God. It is good virtue to be kind to others.

“But, unfortunately, on account of
superficial knowledge or ignorance, the so-called leaders of Islam injected
hatred, alienation, prejudice and violence into the hearts of ignorant Muslims,
instead of preaching love for God or brotherhood of man.

“The history written by the Muslims
themselves will testify and corroborate the fact that lakhs of non-Muslims have
been butchered in wholesale massacres, in the name of Islam. What brutal
tyranny, intolerable harshness, absolute despotism and ruthless oppression did
they not inflict on the non-Muslims in the name of Islam, due to the
ministerpretation of the words ‘Kufra’ and ‘Kafir’ !

Guru
Govind Singh’s sons buried alive : “They burnt the non-Muslims alive. They
did not spare even the women and the children. History says that they buried in
a brick-wall even the young sons of Guru Govind Singh of only eight and ten
years of age when they resolutely refused to accept Islam. They rode rough-shod
over all those who ever dared challenge the autocratic and dictatorial bigotry
of the Muslims. With only a few noble exceptions, a very great majority of
Muslims treated the non-Muslims as Kafirs. This is against the very tenets of
Islam which literally means of the ‘Religion of peace’.

In
the name of Islam his own creation annihilated : “Yet, in the very name of
God and His peaceful religion Islam, His own creation has been annihilated and
mercilessly cut down, under the sword of bigotry and fanaticism of ignorant
Muslims. Lakhs of non-Muslims were taken prisoners and made to say good-bye to
their hearths and homes, to be sold in Muslim countries as slaves to serve
their masters for their whole life. Lakhs of helpless women were made into
windows. They were raped and used to satisfy the lust of the guardians of Islam.
By the misuse of the words ‘Kufra’ and ‘Kafir’, millions of innocent children
were rendered orphans and forced to lead a life of immorality by the soldiers
of Islam.

“What is all this for? Is this your
Islam which you call the Religion of peace? Is terrorism the only way to make
people accept Islam? This is what your own history says. This is what the world
has seen of Islam. This is what the Indians have experienced. And this is what
the Muslims are even today practicing in India on the smallest pretext, during
the communal riots said to be engineered at the behest of our alien rulers. But
no. This is not the teaching of Islam, the Religion of peace. It is due to the
wrong interpretation of the words ‘Kufra’ and ‘Kafir’.

“The Muslims, specially in India, have
not only misused the words ‘Kufra’ and ‘Kafir’ in the name of their peaceful
religion, but have also indulged in all sorts of sins, murders, butchery,
bloodshed, rape, hatred, jealousy, spite, prejudice, etc. against the
non-Muslims.

“It is not the non-Muslims, but the
so-called Muslims themselves who have defamed and vilified their own simple,
veracious and unfeigned religion which is said to be preaching peace on earth.
They have themselves presented an ugly image of their God-fearing and simple religion
before the world.

“According to the Indian Muslims in
general, Kafir is one who is not a Muslim; but the interpretation is absolutely
wrong. It is for this reason that wherever they went, they, in their zeal to
spread their religion, perpetrated tyranny, bloodshed and oppression. All this
is against the fundamental principles of Islam…

“According to the Muslims, a
non-Muslim is a Kafir, however God-intoxicated or truly religious-minded he may
be. As such, it is said that a so-called Muslim has every right to do away with
a non-Muslim if the latter does not believe in the Prophet Mohammed or in the
Kuran as if he, the non-Muslim, has not been created by the same God. It is
also said that a Muslim will be forgiven by God for his sins just because he is
a formal Muslim. This is a popular belief among the Muslim masses. All this
misbelieve or blind faith is against the fundamental principles of Islam…

“If your own God has made people take
birth into non-Muslim families, who are you to shed their blood, annihilate
them or hate them after taking them to be kafirs? How do you justify yourself
in finding fault with God’s doing? How dare you interfere with His planning?...

“Are you not a Kafir yourself when you
deny God by acting practically all the time with selfish motives?”